How to Hide Columns in Microsoft Excel

When you’re working with large Excel sheets, it can become difficult to navigate through countless rows and columns of data.

This can become particularly frustrating if you don’t work with most of the columns, but you can’t remove them as they’re needed in the document.

However, Microsoft Excel allows you to temporarily hide the unnecessary columns and make it easy for you to work with larger documents. This article will cover multiple ways to hide columns in Microsoft Excel and explain how to unhide them later on.

This will hide the ‘C’ column on the ‘Sheet 1’, as stated in the code above. For every column that you want to hide, you should repeat the process and replace the column letter in the code.

How to Unhide Columns in Excel

It is relatively easy and straightforward to unhide columns in Excel. There are two easy methods to make them appear again.

Unhide Columns with the ‘Unhide’ Option

By using the same right-click method that you’ve used to hide the column, you can unhide it too.

The process can be trickier in older versions of Microsoft Excel, as it requires you to select the thick line that represents the hidden column. It’s much easier in the latest Excel releases. Follow these steps:

Select the column that’s adjacent to the hidden one (newer version).

Right-click on the column.

Select ‘Unhide.’

The column should appear. In the older versions, you need to right-click the thick line between the columns and then select the ‘Unhide’ option.

Unhide Columns with a Double-Click

Another way to unhide the columns is to double-click on the thick line that represents the hidden one.

In some cases, the column unhidden with this method will appear slightly narrower than usual. You can manually click on the edge of the column and drag your mouse to increase it. Alternatively, you can right-click the column and select ‘Column Width’ before entering the required value.

Easy Hiding

As you can see, hiding a column in Microsoft Excel is a simple and straightforward task. Keep in mind that hidden columns can be restored easily, so they are not the same as deleted columns.

You should use this feature for organizational purposes and to prevent your screen from getting overcrowded with non-essential data. However, if you want to remove a column for good, use the delete function.

In which cases do you need to hide your Excel columns? What is your preferred method? Leave your comments in the section below.